Fifty Shades of Grey Wine Case Study

Surrounding the highly anticipated premiere of the Fifty Shades of Grey film, Fifty Shades of Grey Wine, featuring Red Satin and White Silk personally blended by author E. L. James, set out to increase brand awareness as well as social media engagement by launching a VIP Fly Away Sweepstakes to Seattle via Facebook.

5W’s objective was to leverage the chatter surrounding the film premiere to create buzz for Fifty Shades of Grey Wine via a sweepstakes, securing consumer, trade, and social media coverage to raise awareness for the contest. In addition, top priorities of the campaign included significantly increasing engagement on social media, as well as driving sales in-store by enticing consumers to post an in-store “selfie” with the wine to the Fifty Shades of Grey Wine Facebook page.

5W’s initial outreach commenced with a press release to consumer and trade media, enticing fans of the world-renowned novels to enter for a chance to “Live Like Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.” In addition, 5W conducted targeted outreach to sweepstakes/contest relevant media outlets, which shared the sweepstakes with readers both online and via social media.

The Fifty Shades of Grey Wine Facebook page saw instantaneous and significant growth, skyrocketing from 750 likes to nearly 13,000 within the first day of the announcement. In addition, 5W secured top trade and contest coverage of the sweepstakes with outlets including Beverage Industry Online, Sweeps Advantage, Freebies Frenzy, and Contest Chest, which ultimately resulted in securing an astounding 1.6 million contest entries as well as selling nearly half of a million bottles of Fifty Shades of Grey Wine to date.

Over the course of the sweepstakes, as well as the roll out of the film, the Fifty Shades of Grey Wines Facebook page organically increased its following by 48,030 likes in a few short weeks.